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A sign that the release is getting closer.
The launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D draws closer. In preparation for the launch, Gigabyte has released a new BIOS for its 500 & 400 series AM4 motherboards.
According to a tweet from @KOMACHI_ENSAKA, the new BIOS includes AMD’s AGESA ComboV2 PI 1.2.0.6B microcode and covers Gigabyte’s X570, B550, A520, X470 and B450 product families.
Though it’s not explicitly stated, the BIOS changelog for a couple of the models we looked at includes support for an ‘Upcoming New CPU’. Which is almost certainly the 5800X3D. Other motherboard manufacturers are certain to follow with their own BIOS releases.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an exciting CPU as it’s the first to include an extra 64MB of vertically stacked cache. This will give it a total of 96MB of L3 cache. It will include 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock will be set at 3.4GHz with a boost clock of 4.5GHz. This is lower than the 4.7GHz of the regular Ryzen 7 5800X. The TDP remains the same at 105W.
[GIGABYTE] X570/B550/A520/X470/B450 Beta BIOS Update (2/27/2022).1.Update AMD AGESA ComboV2 PI 1.2.0.6B for Upcoming New CPU support.2.Reappear the option of Max CPU Boost Clock Override for Vermeer.February 27, 2022
AMD lowered the clocks a little in order to fit within the 105W TDP envelope, but this means that if you have good cooling and a motherboard with a decent VRM, there’s every chance that the 5800X3D could have good overclocking headroom.
AMD claims the 5800X3D can deliver up to 15% higher gaming performance than the base 5800X. Though that is probably going to be limited to games that are sensitive to a large and low latency cache. It may also end up as a low volume CPU.
Will the lower clock speed hurt it significantly? Or will the extra cache be enough to offset it across all kinds of workloads? We’ll have to wait and see how it performs if or when we get it installed into our test bench sometime in the spring.
Chris’ gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an ‘educational PC’ that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he’s gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.
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